Which MBP should I get?

[djarpit]

I use the follwoing:

Reason
Plugins and Instruments VSTs (right now.. planning to go to AUs)
Cubase ( will probably go to logic 8)
USB sound blaster sound card
USB Samson Mic
MK 449C Keyboard
Lots of Wav samples
Lots of Reason Refills

Most I've gone in reason is about 20 tracks with rewired to cubase and about 10 recorded tracks in cubase

I mostly run about 5-10 effects including auto-tune

Its going to be mostly on my desk.

should i get the 15" base model? any other suggestions?

 

[polaris20]

I use the follwoing:

Reason
Plugins and Instruments VSTs (right now.. planning to go to AUs)
Cubase ( will probably go to logic 8)
USB sound blaster sound card
USB Samson Mic
MK 449C Keyboard
Lots of Wav samples
Lots of Reason Refills

Most I've gone in reason is about 20 tracks with rewired to cubase and about 10 recorded tracks in cubase

I mostly run about 5-10 effects including auto-tune

Its going to be mostly on my desk.

should i get the 15" base model? any other suggestions?

I'd say either the top end 13" (which is what I'd do, personally) or the $1999 15". If you're going to go 15", you may as well spend a little more to get the higher clock speed and the ability to go dedicated graphics, which eases the memory a bit.

Personally, had the MBP 13" existed when I bought mine, I'd have gotten that instead, as I much prefer the smaller size coupled with a large external screen (I've got a 24")

 

[NewSc2]

Base 15" should do you well, but I'd spring for the 2nd tier 15" (with the dedicated graphics card) if you can afford it. My 2.5 year old MBP is still holding up very good, and I can run Logic/Live, several softsynths, and reverbs/compressors/delays with lots of room to spare.

Wouldn't recommend the 13" -- monitor resolution is important for making music. Sure you could hook your MBP to an external, but there will be many times when you're just using it by itself.

 

[mikes70mustang]

Base 15" should do you well, but I'd spring for the 2nd tier 15" (with the dedicated graphics card) if you can afford it. My 2.5 year old MBP is still holding up very good, and I can run Logic/Live, several softsynths, and reverbs/compressors/delays with lots of room to spare.

Wouldn't recommend the 13" -- monitor resolution is important for making music. Sure you could hook your MBP to an external, but there will be many times when you're just using it by itself.

and the 13 only has 1 audio port. It might not be a big deal but you never know when you might need both at the same time.

 

[salientstimulus]

I got the late-2008 unibody 13" MB (very similar to the current 13" MBP, without the firewire - grrr...) and I've been pretty happy with it (running Logic). I have had some bumping against the processor (2GHz, 2GB), but just freezing a few of the tracks i'm not tweaking has always solved the problem. I've never used ReWire, but maybe processor headroom gets more important? Anyway, you'll presumably have a significantly faster processor and hopefully 4+ gigs of ram.

Especially for mixing, it really comes in handy to have a bigger screen; I don't think 13" vs 15" would make much difference -- much better to have a good external (you can get a perfectly adequate ~24" for under $200 these days, assuming you're not also a photo editor). But on the other hand, if you rarely work at home...

On the other hand, the 15"/17" have the 7200rpm options, which might be pretty handy for large projects.